


If I Only Could

by UnmaskedPotential



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Empathy, Gems, Gen, Inspired by Music, Inspired by Youtube fan video, Magic, Perspectives, Running up that hill by Track and Field, Song Lyrics, Soul Switch, Thor - Freeform, Thor and Loki meets Freaky Friday, Understanding, character exploration, gabygal7, learning, old idea, short fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-05-13 04:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19243852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnmaskedPotential/pseuds/UnmaskedPotential
Summary: When Thor and Loki uncover a magical gem that switches their souls into the other sibling's body, they are tasked with coming to understand what makes the other person tick and how to overcome the challenges facing them. Think Thor and Loki meets "Freaky Friday" (2003). AU congruent to Thor now. Idea inspired by gabygal7's fan-video and "Running up that Hill" cover by Track & Field.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Thor & Loki | Running Up That Hill](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/490963) by gabygal7. 
  * Inspired by [Running Up That Hill - Track & Field cover](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/490966) by Ingrid Maria. 



He awoke at the stroke of dawn. His long black hair bounced on his shoulders as he scurried from the sheets of his magnificent bedding into the cool, dark hallway.

 

His elder sibling, dressed in red undergarments and trying to discreetly and silently remove his armor from the rack, smiled up at him.

 

“Are you ready?” he whispered as softly as his low voice could manage.

 

The trickster gave a small smile in his green eyes and smirked.

 

“Naturally.”

 

The blonde oaf of his brother chuckled a little louder than he intended before he cupped a hand over his mouth and shuffled forwards, silver armor nestling into each other with a soft clang.

 

“Can you be any louder?” Loki asked beneath his breath as he rolled his green eyes and good-naturedly shoved Thor by the shoulder.

 

“Hopefully not,” Thor replied in good humor, casting one of his blue eyes over to his younger sibling, easily questioning his particular choice of clothing.

 

“I can materialize my armor,” Loki supplied with a sigh. He wondered how many times he’d have to go over this with Thor before the fool would remember it in his own brains.

 

“Aaa,” Thor hummed, casting an approving look towards his brother then. “You’ll have to teach me your ways someday, brother.”

 

Loki huffed, “It’s not that easy, Thor. But I’ll lend out some books on the subject for you, if you want.”

 

Thor instantly made a face.

 

“No books.” He answered with confidence.

 

“They’d help your brains to arrive in your skull for once in your life,” Loki easily retorted back.

 

“Too many words, cannot compute,” Thor made a silly face, sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes.

 

Loki couldn’t help but laugh--whether at him or with him it was difficult to tell.

 

“You’re a fool,” Loki said, tossing another small shove his way.

 

Thor grinned, as bashful and happy as a puppy.

 

“That’s why you love me.”

 

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

 

And they continued their playful banter as they strolled into the golden rays of the rising sun as it lit up the city of Asgard, streaking over the green branches of nearby trees as if it were adding hope onto an unforgiving landscape.

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

 “We should have invited Sif!” Thor called behind him as he strode gallantly up a rocky hillside, arms swinging in the wind as he stared out over the orange and pink horizon.

 

“She would have just gotten in the way,” Loki replied, huffing slightly and coming up next to Thor a few moments after.

 

“She’s a good friend,” Thor replied, pouting.

 

“Your friend,” Loki corrected, giving his brother a long stare. “You know she only hangs out with me because you’re there.”

 

Thor tilted his head for a moment, looking strangely back at him.

 

“She’s as much a friend of yours as she is of mine,” Thor admonished, reaching out a hand to his brother to caress him by the neck.

 

Loki shrugged off his hand.

 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Loki said dejectedly, a look of pain crossing his features before he settled his eyes on the rising sun above a set of clouds. “Left or right?” he asked, pointing towards the dirt path before them.

 

Thor hesitated; he had an itching feeling that something was wrong, something was amiss with his brother but they were so used to usually ignoring particular jabs and secrets that he wasn’t sure if he should question him further or just let the topic die.

 

Loki, annoyed at his brother’s hesitance and thinking it were not of the conversation that had just ended, pointed roughly to the right and started down the rocky terrain.

 

Inevitably, Thor let the comment go, however he did reflect on it further. Loki didn’t have many friends among their home on Asgard. Thor, boisterous and eccentric as he was, had no trouble making friends. He first made friends with Sif, then Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. Volstagg loved to eat and he was a pretty good man for company. Many a time they would get full with meats, cheeses and much mead upon the feasts after a winning battle. He trained alongside Sif with her quick wit and fast jabs; he and Fandral drooled over the Asgardian women with their long braided hair and festive style of nature; and Hogun he enjoyed conversing with late at night under the stars and wondering about what lay before them in the coming centuries.

 

But Loki…Loki was more secluded. Loki spent more of his time reading books in the grand libraries of their home than sparring with other boys and young men. Loki was content being by himself and studying for the next elective’s exams, rather than engaging with the surrounding world.

 

Thor frowned, digging through his mind to uncover a friendship that Loki had ever formed on his own but coming up with few.

 

He knew that Loki was pretty close to mother and Eir the woman in charge of the healing rooms. But those were more parental figures than true friends and it dawned on him then how different the two were. They were brothers, all the same, but they were complete opposites.

 

Thor enjoyed parties and gatherings; Loki enjoyed time alone. Thor was active in their training sessions; Loki often ventured to the corner to practice his magic. Thor had many friends; Loki struggled with socializing skillfully.

 

The thunder god let out a large, shaky breath. He wasn’t so sure whether he and his brother would make it through the trials and tribulations set against them for their young adulthood. Thor tried not to worry about Loki, but truly, he did, and he did a lot. If Loki struggled to make friends now than how were things going to be for him when he rules the kingdom? He would have many more enemies than allies and this worried the elder sibling.

 

Friends were necessary to remain level-headed. Friends were necessary to let off steam and relax and have fun.

 

But friends, more and more to Thor about his brother, seemed to be just extra baggage that wasn’t necessary for Loki to carry.

 

With a heavy heart and none too easy to answer questions, Thor hurried back after his brother, trailing behind him like leaves being removed from their hiding spots.

 

Maybe with time things would change and be different for the two siblings. Maybe Loki would grow out of his oddities and Thor into his. He had hope, he had light. He hoped that Loki, too, would find his own.

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

“Over here!” Thor called behind his back as he rifled through the carnage lying before him.

 

“Did you find it?” Loki immediately asked over his shoulder and Thor jumped in surprise.

 

“Brother!” Thor exclaimed, his voice practically booming in the dark cave. “You scared me! How did you--?” Thor looked around in bewilderment.

 

Loki leveled a stare at him that merely communicated how he felt about his brother’s intelligence.

 

“Oh. Right. Magic,” Thor wiggled his fingers and Loki rolled his eyes, dejectedly.

 

“Just let me know when you find it,” Loki muttered softly. He had a hard set frown on his face as he moved away, tinkering in the white light, trying to find something else to keep his mind busy.

 

Thor’s face also contorted into a frown, second-guessing whether he had said something wrong to bring pain onto his brother’s face. Thor stared at his younger sibling, mouth slightly agape with his hands hovering above the gray rocks.

 

Loki’s face bristled into disgust and he halted, frozen for a moment, before shooting Thor another look.

 

“What?” his green eyes narrowed considerably as his brows came together, slanting into anger.

 

“Are you--?” Thor began but Loki laughed mirthlessly, cutting his words off at the throat.

 

“Don’t act like you care, Thor.” Loki sighed loudly. “Just find the stone you so immaturely dropped.”

 

Loki walked away from him again and Thor stared at his crouched form until the penetrating rays of sunshine shone in his eyes.

 

“Oh, Loki,” Thor whispered to himself, pain marring his own features while he turned back to the rocks beneath his sooty hands.

 

They dug around in silence for what felt like an eternity.

 

During that time, Thor found several red and gold gems, a couple of pink and green but no purple mahogany. Loki had been showing him the jewel with pained patience, resistant to letting Thor handle it then giving in when his puppy dog looks wore him down. Of course, it was then that Thor’s clumsy, meaty fingers lost grip of the jewel and dropped it onto the grey tarmac. And from the tarmac the bouncing jewel, that Eir had let the trickster handle under the condition he was to drop it off in her healing rooms after their excursion, twinkled and flicked onto stones in an elaborate zig zag before falling through a crevice and down into a cave, where they found themselves now, no closer to finding it.

 

Loki was standing now with his hands on his hips, eyeballing a pile of grey rocks when he heard Thor shuffle the sediments behind him. He turned slowly to his sibling, sheen of sweat on his brow that he ineffectually tried to wipe away. His green eyes sparkled with unbidden mischief as he landed them on Thor’s back. His elder sibling was buried to the waist in gems of multiple colors.

 

Thor didn’t know it as well as Loki did, but each rock had its own aura and energy emanating from it. The green ones with a shred of power, gold with knowledge, pink with healing properties and red with emotion.

 

The oaf really could be a fool and his blatant aversion to reading books made him far behind Loki’s awareness of the world around him.

 

Loki let out a long breath before hurrying over to his brother.

 

“Need help?” he asked, letting out his hand into the ashy air.

 

Thor grinned up at him. “When don’t I?” he asked, before clasping Loki’s offered limb.

 

The two got back on their feet with no additional trouble.

 

It was then that two pairs of eyes, one ocean blue and one as green as the needles on a pine tree, fell upon a blue gem different than the rest.

 

Loki scrunched up his eyes--he hadn’t read anything about a blue gem before. His feelings of dread began as heavy weights in his stomach that made his organs feel as though they had dropped to his ankles.

 

At the same time, for Thor and all his obliviousness, his own eyes shown with the unimaginable magic the rock could possess. He didn’t ever realize it was his hand reaching out to the gem until he felt Loki’s cool palm entangle itself around his.

 

“What are you doing?” Loki hissed in no uncertain terms.

 

“It’s so pretty,” Thor answered, seemingly in a trance.

 

Loki quirked a brow in question at this, “It may be so, but that doesn’t mean you should touch it.” Loki advised, although he knew his attempts to change the course of this story were futile.

 

“Don’t you want to see it?” Thor asked with his mouth wide.

 

Loki stared at him deeply. “No, because I don’t know what it is.”

 

“That’s why we should hold it,” Thor insisted strangely.

 

Loki took half a step back.

 

“Thor, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” Loki side-eyed him then pulled back on Thor’s wrist a little. “Let’s just look for Eir’s rock. Come on.”

 

Just as Loki was about to step away, his own eyes found the angle in which the blue gem was radiating yellow illuminations.

 

Unaware that he was also being enthralled by a piece of sediment, he felt more than realized his and Thor’s hands reaching out closer and closer to the magical stone.

 

At the moment their fingers graced along the smooth yet raised edges of the vertically elongated hexagon--brightness overcame them that blasted light into their eye sockets and around and around their bodies.

 

There was a feeling of weightlessness, of foreign territories as a moment of being displaced occurred and an absence of pain and physical feelings followed after.

 

Loki had a second to think that something wasn’t right as colors danced in his vision like shaken kaleidoscopes before darkness shielded his eyes and he thought nothing more.

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

He awoke slowly, his senses only coming back to him one by one.

 

First there was the smell. Putrid, really. It smelled like sweat and, if he were being honest, passed gas.

 

Next, he heard muffled voices. Down the hallway, he presumed but he didn’t remember coming back with Thor to the castle.

 

 _Where am I?_ He thought, trying to make out the words being spoken just out of earshot.

 

His hand instinctively came up to the side of his head, playing with his ears as if to shake something loose.

 

It didn’t help; it rarely did.

 

He sighed; shifting his aching body off what he assumed was his bed. When had his body last ached? And why did his bed hold more of a bounce than usual?

 

 _That’s odd,_ he thought, questions peeking through his system.

 

He swung his legs over from the mattress, feeling his thighs were thicker than he remembered. He shook away the dizziness that suddenly engulfed him as he tore his eyes open.

 

What he saw…made his heart skip a beat then smash into his chest wall beat after beat.

 

“What the--?” came his low, raspy and grumbled response.

 

In panic and fear, he scrambled with his foreign body, a body that **wasn’t** his own, and stumbled over his heavy footballs, landing himself by a small mirror in the bathroom that he held with shaking, thick hands.

 

What he saw made chills run through his body--a body too hot for his own comfort.

 

Not….not **his** body--but, but **Thor’s**.

 

His blue eyes widened in surprise and newfound horror.

 

He gasped, a sinking feeling eradicating his form, “Oh, no.”


	2. Chapter 2

_It doesn’t hurt me. You want to feel how it feels._

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

His lower jaw unhinged from its strong grasp to his upper row of teeth as he let out a manly, low thunder roar.

 

He clapped a meaty hand to his foreign lips then and practically leapt into the air.

 

“Thor!” He shouted again, this time his blue eyes narrowing into slits like a cat’s and spinning on his heel as he sauntered out of the room with purpose and pseudo ease (his heavy footfalls were mostly uncoordinated and far too disconcerting).

 

He stomped angrily down the hall, barely escaping Volstagg quickly approaching with mead and meat in his beefy hands.

 

“Thor!” He began voice too cheery for him to mind (and Loki was a morning person).

 

“Fuck off!” He uncharacteristically exclaimed, tossing his hands into the air with exasperation and bubbling forms of twenty different degrees of frustration.

 

Volstagg immediately stopped in his tracks, head tilting into shocked confusion.

 

“Why are you awake so early?”

 

Loki sighed, of course that was his question, why had he expected anything different?

 

“I thought I’d stop by Loki’s bedroom bright and early as he won’t be expecting me.” Loki had Thor’s body shine a gleaming, forced smile of friendliness. This is what it felt like to be happy, right? “I think I may even be able to give him a mighty fright!” He chuckled for good measure, grabbing hold of Volstagg’s drink and raising the glass up higher.

 

“Cheers to surprises, my friend!”

 

Volstagg’s bearded face broke out into his own wide smile, as he meanwhile stuffed three sets of bread into his awaiting mouth. He mumbled something inaudible to Loki’s ears but Loki’s now blue eyes shifted with further annoyance back to the hall before him.

 

“I am going to kill you, brother.” He mumbled beneath his breath, shifting the tight tension in his shoulders as he had begun to stiffen his brother’s form.

 

“And I will enjoy it deeply and intimately.” He growled, a look of pure fury settling into his brother’s features.

 

He rounded the corner of the next hall and burst through his bedroom encased in green, gold and black before he had the risk of running into anyone else he would know.

 

Loki’s door swung back unsteadily with the power he had placed from the palm of Thor’s hand, rattling against the adjacent wall and creaking as though it may break.

 

 _You are quite powerful, Thor, I’ll give you that,_ Loki thought and as his blue eyed gaze fell upon his own actual body he exhaled in a rush of fizzling anger as his form didn’t move a single millimeter even with all of his commotion.

 

“Thor!” He cried out but as he had suspected, his brother’s body did not react.

 

He clambered over to his form and, only feeling slightly bad about it (the mead was going to leave his hair so sticky), he yelled Thor’s name again while simultaneously tossing the full mug (yes, he included the mug itself because why the hell not, and it was Thor’s fault anyways that they were in this mess) onto his black haired head.

 

Thor immediately sputtered, coughed, sprang up and swung around his lanky arms and landed his green eyed gaze onto…his own self.

 

“Whoa! What the hell--?” Loki’s voice resounded from Thor’s mouth and he, too, slapped a hand to it in shock.

 

“Loki! Where are you? What level of sorcery is this?” Thor spluttered, tripping over his own hand-picked words. “What is the meaning of this? Am I--I dreaming?”

 

“You tell me.” Thor’s voice replied from his own body; clearly unimpressed and already fed up with their predicament.

 

“How am I s-standing over there?” He meekly croaked with eyes wide.

 

“Look at yourself,” Loki replied, pointing down to his true form.

 

Thor instantly did as he was advised and cried out in alarm.

 

“This is you!” He blurted out, eyes cast to his body standing before him again in a look of pure confusion and innocence.

 

Before Thor could begin to think of blaming Loki for this he said in Thor’s voice, “And I you. I told you not to touch that gem.”

 

It was okay for Loki to blame Thor, however, because he truly was smarter than his brother and it would have taken days for Thor to figure this fact out.

 

As if on cue, Thor’s green eyes glazed over as his mouth parted open and an uncharacteristic look of stupidity crossed Loki’s features.

 

“Don’t make that face. Idiocy is not a good look on me.” Loki said, folding his arms and tapping one foot impatiently.

 

“And you remind me now of Sif,” Thor scathingly mentioned, huffing in frustration.

 

Loki stilled and couldn’t help but outwardly flinch, taking a seat by his side and without further consideration, slapped his own face, hard.

 

“Ow!” Thor yelped, his neck swinging in pain. He rubbed a thin hand over his cheek, glaring at Loki. “What was that for?”

 

“Don’t be such a bligesnipe and that won’t happen.”

 

“You started it,” he said between rubbing his cheek in circles to soothe the ache.

 

“And then I finished it.” Loki retorted back, sighing heavily, even with the sting of Thor’s comment lingering in his soul. He had his insecurities and he wished Thor hadn’t played with him in the manner in which he just did.

 

Thor, surprisingly, regarded Loki with a moment of silence, before uttering quietly, “My apologies, brother. That may have gone too far.” His gaze held sorrow and Loki shifted uncomfortably, not understanding how Thor had known that.

 

Thor raised one of Loki’s hands and tapped on his temple.

 

“I….can see that you’re….uncomfortable with being regarded as different or lesser of a man than I am. I’m sorry. I…didn’t know that before.” Thor shifted his gaze down in a look of shame though it was hard to tell as Loki could witness a brief flicker of deception between the furrow of his brows and the direction of his gaze.

 

“Stop looking into my mind,” he said gruffly, grabbing a side of his face and forcing his blue eyed gaze onto his green. “Thor.” He repeated as he saw his brother’s continued averted gaze. “Stop it.”

 

But Thor didn’t stop. Instead, his eyes grew mournful as tears formed within their corners.

 

“You really hate me, don’t you, brother?” Thor pleadingly asked, tears now streaking his gaunt face. “You’re so full of rage and envy.” Thor hiccupped. “Deception and lies. Why do you live this way, brother? **How** do you live this way?” Thor looked over at himself, unhidden emotion leaking from his pores.

 

Loki, borrowing Thor’s mouth, kept it in a thin, tight line. His eyes conveyed a level of rage that could not be trusted. He glared back at himself, hand still upon his face.

 

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” he pronounced each word behind gritted teeth. “You do not have the right to read my mind.”

 

“And you have the right to remain silent about your fears? About your pain?” Thor exclaimed, eyes now looking hurt.

 

“Why didn’t you speak of these to me, Loki?” Thor asked, eyes searching his azure.

 

Loki’s gaze remained locked on Thor’s.

 

“I did not give you permission to read my mind.”

 

“But if you had, would you have told me any of this?” Thor shook his head where he could, his own hand limiting his available motion by how tightly Loki was clenching it.

 

“And my coronation,” he gasped, suddenly breathless. “Loki,” he shuddered, eyes locking onto his own where he could see pain and expectation reflecting in his sea of irises. “Tell me you aren’t serious. You, **you** were the one responsible for inviting the Frost Giants into Asgard to steal the Casket of Ancient Winters? Why--why would you do that?” Thor’s eyes flicked back and forth, analyzing, practically memorizing the plans Loki had locked away behind his green pastures.

 

Maybe Loki wasn’t the lovable and adoring brother he thought he knew so well.

 

“You should know,” he muttered softly. “You’re the one invading my mind.”

 

Thor didn’t seem to hear him but his gaze softened into worry.

 

“Loki, had you merely told me of these plights of yours, I would have listened.”

 

Loki chortled. “Right, Thor. Because you’re so eager to listen to me rather than brush me off as your doting brother, clambering after you like a lost puppy. Do spare me the promises, Thor. You’re terrible at keeping them, anyways.”

 

He stood up abruptly then, fingers sliding away from his soft skin where he still had held it.

 

“Do carry on disrupting my privacy. It’s not like you ever respected it before, either.” He called over his shoulder as he began to leave his bedroom and his pain (he hoped) behind.

 

“Loki,” Thor choked back. “Where are you going?”

 

“To fuck up your life, brother.” He grinned back at him, blue eyes twinkling. “Because the taste of revenge is ever so sweet.”

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

Loki-turned-Thor stormed into the dining hall. It had been just over a day since his failed coronation and the demigod wanted to make it look like he was especially peeved about the situation. He had only so much time before Thor-turned-Loki would be on his tail, trying to (he imagined failingly) convince anyone who would listen that they had been switched and reveal the plans that Loki had so delicately prepared and executed for months in the dark. Loki wasn’t going to let Thor have this satisfaction. He had worked too hard, took too many detours and alleyways into preparing these ideas, practiced enough magic for his evil deeds, that there was no way he was giving up so easily now, not even if he was trapped in his brother’s body.

 

 _It would seem,_ Loki thought to himself, _that there were certain advantages in becoming the elder god._ He was more powerful, stronger, had more friends, had the conviction and faith of those around him, had purpose and, he hoped, had the strengthening possibility of lifting Mjolnir.

 

Would he actually be able to lift it was another matter he wasn’t so sure of, but it hadn’t come up yet so for now, Loki was skating by on thin ice, but he felt…powerful. He felt all mighty. He felt…really, really great.

At this rate, he could get used to being Thor. In fact, he didn’t see much point or reason to switch back at all. Especially because Thor now knew what his plans from the failed coronation entailed, how cutthroat and sneaky he was willing to be to become the next in line to rule the kingdom. This was startling information that would surprise most around him (although many would probably think it was a very ‘Loki’ thing to do) and particularly land him in the dungeons.

 

But if Thor in his body was made to be put into the dungeons and Loki was made to walk free? That sounded far more appealing to the trickster. As Thor, he could practically do anything with little to no repercussions.

 

Indeed, he liked being Thor more than he liked being himself.

 

And it was natural to guess that Thor would want them to switch back, but Loki was already making his next plans to get him the hell away from his older sibling, just in his older sibling’s body.

 

He was borrowing really, borrowing what should have always been his.

 

Presently, he had just pushed aside a couple guards and flipped a banquet table that sent all the food laid out over the cloth to reside instead upon the floor in a loud crash. 

 

Loki saw from the corner of his eye that his ‘friends’ were approaching. He smiled to himself, uttering lowly, “This was supposed to be my day of triumph. If the Frost Giants,” he snarled the term, “found a way to defy our defenses once, who’s to say they won’t do it again?” He shifted his way to the stairs while muttering more quietly, “Is there nothing I can do without defying father?”

 

He stood up, purpose rushing through his veins, as the realization (he acted) dawned on him. “It’s the only way to assure the safety of our borders.” He looked to his friends, Volstagg in the midst of holding a knife and a loaf of bread and the others looking upon him warily. “We’re going to Jotunheim.”

 

Fandral made a huffed remark out of a “what”, looking blearily upon the demigod as Sif slowly stepped forward, warning in disbelief, “Thor, of all the laws of Asgard this is the one you **must** not break.”

 

Fandral piped in right away, “This isn’t like a journey to Earth where you summon a little lightning and thunder and the mortals worship you as a god. This is…Jotunheim.” He hissed the name quietly, advancing forwards along with the womanly warrior.

 

“If the Frost Giants don’t kill you,” Volstagg piped in, slicing some cheese, “Your father will.” He deadpanned, eyeing his friend thoughtfully.

 

With an air of pride, Loki replied, “My father fought his way into Jotunheim. Defeated their armies and took their Casket. We would just be looking for answers.” He smiled at his friends, an evil intention lurking behind his blue eyes. They were falling for his façade better than he had ever dreamed.

 

“It is forbidden,” Sif decried, urgency swallowing her whole, this declaration she knew was upon the right footing.

 

Loki made himself chuckle; striding forwards once more, “My friends, have you forgotten all that we have done together?” He moved first to Fandral’s shoulders, clasping them as he said, “Who brought you into the sweet embrace of the most exotic maidens of all of Yggdrasil?”

 

Fandral’s sly grin grew, conceding, “You helped a little.”

 

Loki moved to Hogun, “And who led you into the most glorious of battles?” As Hogun was saying it was Thor who had, Loki had already moved onto Volstagg, marking them off his mental checklist one by one. “And the delicacies so succulent you thought you’d died and gone to Valhalla?”

 

Volstagg blushed, admitting it was Thor’s doing.

 

Loki sauntered towards Sif, inciting, “And who proved wrong all who scoffed at the idea that a young maiden could be one of the fiercest warriors this realm has ever known?”

 

Sif, rolling her eyes, asserted, “I did.”

 

Loki had himself immediately back down with a serious, “True, but I supported you.” He swiveled himself around with lengthy arm gestures, crying out, “My friends, trust me now we must do this.”

 

As if on cue and right when Loki needed him, the doors to the hall opened and a still damp Loki emerged with anxiety clear on his face. Loki watched as his green eyes gazed over the mess of the room, taking in what was occurring and trying to decipher where in his plans Loki was shrouded in. Thor could read his mind after all and so he knew what it was that Loki was planning: a trip to Jotunheim. It was all falling into place so neatly, that Loki in Thor’s body couldn’t help but smile.

 

Loki wasted no time in his ever-growing land of opportunities to step up to his brother, eyes dancing. Thor, for what it was worth, jerked his hands as though they were foreign to him (and they were) and stumbled backwards into the wall as Loki stepped up beside him, getting close to his ear so that the others wouldn’t hear his uncharacteristic threats.

 

“And you would do well to bite your tongue, brother, and go along with my plans. I have them eating out of the palm of your hand, and if you so much as flinch the wrong way, I will gut you without further hesitation, leaving you to shrivel on the cold, hard floor of Jotunheim completely alone. I would lose nothing in doing so, so the choice is yours, brother.”

 

Loki’s face flushed suddenly as Thor let out a shuddering breath, just as Loki himself was turning to his friends and suggesting loudly, “You’re not going to let my brother and me take all the glory are you?”

 

Loki turned his face, looking expectantly to his brother, the back of his head facing Thor’s friends.

 

With Thor not uttering a peep, Loki challenged again, “Well, brother, you are coming with me, aren’t you?”

 

Thor’s wavering gaze found Loki’s, his eyes watering to their own accord.

 

“Aren’t you?” Loki pressed, dangerous smile lighting up his features.

 

Thor hesitated for another moment, before he edged forwards, eyes trailing over his friends, friends that were so blind by Loki’s acting ability to be just like him that he found his heart stuttering in its beat as it hurled itself forwards and he took up the bait, helpless as to what he could possibly do to alter this course of history. Thor felt Loki’s deception run through his veins and the anxiety that coursed through him as well, as they competed back and forth for dominance over his mind. He hadn’t realized how much these thoughts ran rampant in his brother’s head, and how the self-doubt gripped him so strongly, so much so that it was miraculous that Loki didn’t--couldn’t--voice them to any of his fellow peers or family. The disheartening notion sucked the joy out of Thor’s teeth like his enamel was fading away each and every time he sucked on a lolly.

 

Thor felt more of a fool than at any other point in his life. And who would necessarily believe him if he were to speak up?

 

Could--could he even speak up? It felt like a peasant had stitched his lips closed because it certainly didn’t feel voluntary to let his brother’s secrets escape. Thor’s eyes further shone with unshed tears, tears he felt so convinced that he could not show to anyone other than his pillow, as he mouthed quietly, “Of course.” A little louder and with his head tilting back, chin rising, he said, “I won’t let my brother march into Jotunheim alone.”

 

It was a confidence that the elder god didn’t have in any ounce within his soul. Not, not anymore. Not under these circumstances.

 

Thor watched, internally shrieking, as his friends, one by one, asserted that they would follow through with their presence.

 

Loki eyed him with a wicked smirk before they sauntered out of the room, Thor on his tails, trying to convince his brother, hell, himself, that this wasn’t the right call.

 

But he knew before the words ever formed on his lips, that it was a losing battle. Loki was going to do what Loki was going to do. And Thor could only play by his rules or end up dead or trapped within his brother’s body, forever.

 

The thought immediately sent waves of powerlessness and fear throughout his frame. He glanced down at his thin, pale fingers, wondering to himself how he could stop this, how he could change things, how they had to find the gem again to change them back.

 

If only he hadn’t been so foolish. If only he had been there more for Loki. If only he had known what he knows now…

 

If there was a time limit on this spell, this, this magic… How would he get his brother to comply? How would he frame the notion that Loki was worth something, worth everything, in his own body and not in his older sibling’s? Was there some way that Thor could break through to Loki? That he just hadn’t realized yet or hadn’t had the time to spend saying it?

 

There had to be something. Right? Right?

 

Thor gulped.

 

Would--would this mean that he could perform magic? Could…could Loki lift his hammer?

 

The questions seemed unanswerable.

 

Was Heimdall even aware of what was happening?

 

As they skated across the palace, Thor found himself wondering and wondering more and more, with seemingly no end in sight. What would happen to them? What lessons would they reach from this excursion? If only Thor hadn’t dropped the other gem that Loki had had. Where was that one anyways? And where would he be able to find the magical gem that switched them to begin with? How would he do so if Loki was enjoying his new sense of purpose and power by being Thor?

 

It didn’t sound like Loki was willing, or interested, in giving that up. Maybe, maybe there was a way that Thor could reach out to him, get him to see how valued Loki was within his own mind, body and soul? But how long would that take?

 

Did they…did they have enough time?

 

Thor huffed restlessly, clambering between ambivalence and certainty, forgetting that he was now the God of Mischief and Lies, the Silvertongue. In fact, if Loki was tapping into Thor’s reserves, why couldn’t Thor tap into Loki’s? Maybe Thor could play the act until they returned to father where he could more reasonably have an open conversation with their parents, get them on his side and safely switched back.

 

He let out a shaky breath, recognizing that that would be his plan, his go-to solution. He just had to wait it out.

 

 _Just wait it out,_ he told himself. _It will all be over soon._

 

Oh how very, very wrong he was.

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

He didn’t have time to explain himself to the guards as his friends and brother in tow got upon their horses to ride to Heimdall at the gate. He managed a few badly sliced words with, what he hoped was urgency, before he followed after them with even more uncertainty beneath his brow.

 

It all felt like time was moving too quickly because before he knew it, they were standing before the Gatekeeper. Then, before he realized he had volunteered himself as tribute, he was conversing with the Gatekeeper with more ease and calm than he felt anywhere near his possessions.

 

“Good Heimdall,” he began, watching as the golden eyes stared straight ahead into nothingness (or maybe everything that was within his line of sight even many moons away).

 

“You’re not dressed warmly enough.”

 

Thor was slightly taken aback as he recoiled with a, “I’m sorry?”

 

Heimdall, in a gravelly tone revealed, “You think that you can deceive me.”

 

Thor shifted his head, chuckling lightly, taking this remark as a challenge. “You must be mistaken--” Before he could get another word in edge-wise, Loki was barking from behind him, “Enough!”

 

Thor immediately felt pushed into a corner. The resentment that bubbled up in his core was so striking and alarming that he had to swallow it back like vomit. His stomach lining was on fire and the petulant pout that formed on his lips were marked especially with the anger and frustration that shone in his eyes.

 

How dare his brother act this way to him? Thor noticed a rage so large he was surprised, flabbergasted even, that his brother wouldn’t voice any of these discretions aloud.

 

It made him realize in a quick moment how guarded Loki was.

 

His brother was already stepping forwards, pushing ‘Loki’ further away into a corner that was framed by the notion that he was incompetent as he asked, “Heimdall, may we pass?”

 

Heimdall, slowly and deliberately responded with: “Never has an enemy slipped my watch since this day.” His gaze flicked briefly towards Loki. “I wish to know how that happened.”

 

“Then tell no one where we have gone until we’ve returned. Understand?” Loki moved forwards roughly and with such confidence, it was bewildering. He had barely even asked permission from the Gatekeeper and just kept going as though everything were to fall into place just for him, just because he was Odin’s firstborn.

 

The Thor in Loki’s form felt aghast and shocked. His anger only returned to a peak as Volstagg harshly spoke, “What happened? Silvertongue turned to lead?”

 

Was this how they treated his younger sibling ordinarily? Would his friends hum a different tune if they knew the truth of their current circumstances? Thor shook his head and proceeded forwards, too many variables knocking around his skull that he could barely think straight, let alone get used to the natural sway and glide Loki’s body walked with. It was entirely flustering. He was so used to the way he would naturally move that it was taking several hours of getting used to the way that Loki operated.

 

It was while Loki in Thor’s body was answering Heimdall that he had no plans to die today that he stuck out a hand to the open air, calling, Thor realized, upon Mjolnir.

 

The weapon, from wherever in the palace he had left it last, came quickly into his grasp.

 

Thor felt his stomach turn to ice and drop to his ankles.

 

Lo--Loki could wield it?

 

But, but what did this mean? For Thor? For Loki? For Asgard?

 

Just as Thor was beginning to think that it was foolproof, he noticed with Loki’s keen observant eyes that the hammer shifted and shook more in his grip than what was normal. It was as though his brother’s grip shook like that of an elder’s. It shivered back and forth and his arm rose and fell with it.

 

Loki, as soon as he recognized this, took the hammer in closer to his chest just as they were beamed out of the golden realm and into the cold, dark, barren expanse of the Frost Giants kingdom.

 

ii_**ii_**ii_**ii_

 

The chilly air swung around them as Sif asked cautiously, “Where are they?”

 

Loki, with spite, replied, “Hiding, as cowards always do.” The amount of pompous flare and attitude that exuded from Thor’s pores sent waves of disgust and embarrassment through Loki’s true form. Thor couldn’t stop Loki’s brain from judging his brother’s remarks and only because he truly was separate from the situation did he recognize how much of a tool his true form was being. It humanized Thor some to realize that he wasn’t as wise and strong and brave as he had thought himself up to be. He was, instead, as foolish and power hungry as Loki’s mind dubbed him. Maybe, maybe Loki was even doing Thor more of a favor of pretending to be him (and excelling at it, he might add) to challenge the way in which the thunder god saw himself, his friends, his family and the environment surrounding him.

 

Thor had always thought himself to be the life of the party but now it was beginning to dawn on him how irrelevant he truly was and how cocky and pig-headed his overzealous confidence made him out to be. He really didn’t know much, especially not as much as it would take to rule an entire kingdom, and he prayed to the Norns that Loki would cut him some slack, recognize this and change his mind about playing him like a character and instead agree to let them switch back with the gem that they had both discovered (once again, if Thor had just minded his own business they wouldn’t have even begun to be in this mess).

 

Thor probably should have realized then how unlikely having Loki call it upon himself to switch their souls back was going to be. But he had faith, blind, blind faith that it would happen.

 

And he was right, it would happen, just not in the way he had been hoping.

 

Meanwhile, Laufey was growling from the shadows, “You’ve come a long way to die Asgardians.”

 

Loki stepped up, holding onto Mjolnir firmly by his chest, his red cape swirling around him, “I am Thor Odinson. I demand to know how your people got into Asgard!” His blue eyes narrowed while internally he was shouting with glee.

 

Laufey looked around, slowly, red eyes glowing.

 

“The house of Odin is full of traitors.”

 

Thor, green eyes blinking and head tilting to the side, shrugged nonchalantly, thinking: _well, he wasn’t wrong._

 

Loki took immediate offense, (as Thor was bound to do, knowing his own body and thoughts well enough), shouting back, “Do not dishonor my father’s name with your lies!” He raised the shimmering Mjolnir a little higher, high enough for Thor to see the tremors rocking through it, before he ultimately lowered it back down out of sight.

 

Laufey, insulted, stood abruptly, snarling back: “Your father is a murderer and a thief. And why have you come here? To make peace? You long for battle… You crave it. You’re nothing but a boy trying to prove himself a man.”

 

His blue eyes squinted considerably in response.

 

“This boy has grown tired of your mockery.”

 

Although, Thor assumed that it hadn’t been a long line of mockery, but he kept that to himself as he lowered his slender chin to his chest, eyeing the other Frost Giants who had begun to infiltrate the surrounding edges around the gods.

 

Just like that, the Frost Giants accompanied themselves with icy weapons, their shanks blooming from their curled back fingers as they prepared for a battle that dragged Thor’s soul to his feet with dread.

 

He immediately stepped up to his brother, praying that what he had to say would cause him to shrink back into his turtle shell along with all his friends. A god could hope, certainly? Maybe they could all make it out of this moment unscathed?

 

“Loki,” he hissed quietly into his ear, observing how many heavy breaths were launching themselves like rockets from their chests. “Stop. And. Think. We’re outnumbered, look around you.”

 

Loki smugly smirked, barely casting his brother a glance as he rattled in a gravelly tone, “Know your place, brother.”

 

“You know not what your actions would unleash….” Laufey’s eyes flitted away for a moment, a pain eclipsing them, despite how hideous they looked. “…I do. Go now, while I still allow it.”

 

Thor instantly took on the placating role, replying with Loki’s voice, “We will accept your most gracious offer.”

 

Thor tried not to miss a beat when he found his own self looking back over at him with resentment and immense rage. Thor could tell that Loki wanted this, he wanted a fight, he wanted chaos, he reeked of it. But he couldn’t let this one moment of narcissism overcome everything that the thunder god had earned in the last century. Thor knew he was doing what was right for himself, for Loki, for his friends, for his parents, for all of Asgard. They had to walk away. They had to let this moment of challenge go. They had to be the bigger person. They had to choose their battles wisely and this was not a wise choice to make to jump back into a war that could so easily be avoided.

 

It was the practiced decision of every great king. Thor was proud of himself for making it.

 

Even with Loki letting off steam, eventually, he too, turned around. They were only a few centimeters away when Laufey coldly remarked, “Run back home, little princess.”

 

Thor exhaled a quietly muttered “Damn.”

 

So much for saving an entire race of people--he heard his hammer lengthen with a soft howl and just like that, the fight had begun.

 

Laufey was quickly clocked with Mjolnir and sent back a few hundred feet as Thor heard himself utter, “Next?”

 

The thunder god in his trickster’s form sighed, unleashing some of his daggers and turning about to fight the giants. Hogun activated his morning star as he also hit at a few nearby Frost Giants while Sif crushed her fingers into her own weapon until the spears were shown and she attacked another frozen monster from behind her. Fandral was whipping around his sword and Thor was thrusting daggers into the held weapons of a few Frost Giants.

 

Thor could hear his own outcries of mockery and deep down he hoped that they’d make it out of this situation alive and intact. He didn’t quite hold his breath on the notion this time, however.

 

It was out of the corner of his brother’s green eyes that he watched as his body challenged the Frost Giants into further submission as one of them head-butted him then punched him in the face, sending him flying backwards.

 

“That’s more like it,” Loki drawled, tossing the hammer at the face of the soldier, knocking him back into the icy landscape. However, instead of Mjolnir falling back to his hand, as he was commanding it to, it flew past him and landed amongst the ice further away.  

 

Thor stilled in his own attacks--was this a sign that Mjolnir knew it was not truly himself wielding it? Was it going to work again? Or was it more of a fickle object than he had realized?

 

Loki’s lips frowned slightly as he was struck by another Frost Giant in the time he was without a weapon meanwhile Thor just side-stepped an attack from a different soldier.

 

Loki extended Thor’s hand but Mjolnir refused to arrive within his palm. Blue eyes keenly watched his fellow comrades to see if they had noticed what was happening to him but it didn’t appear as though they had. Next, he placed more effort into his footing upon the white expanse of the terrain, the soles of his boots shifting uneasily until finally Mjolnir returned to his grasp. He let out a low sigh in relief as he easily struck a new offending Frost Giant along his way.

 

Thor managed to slip back into the background of the battle as soon as he let go of his own exhale. Hiding behind a wall of spiky ice, he hoped to figure out in the next thirty seconds how to wield Loki’s magic.

 

He got a wavering, shimmering mess of an illusion but it was enough to fool a large Frost Giant off the edge of a cliff so Thor took it as a success in stride.

 

It was when Volstagg shouted out in pain from the grip of a Frost Giant’s hand on his forearm, warning the others to not let the beasts touch them that things began to grow more awry.

 

Loki was busy thrusting Thor’s hammer into one, two, then three beasts of the cold while Thor was struggling to keep back one. It wasn’t necessarily that Loki’s form was weaker, Thor just…hadn’t gotten used to it yet. Loki had other advantages that Thor never knew of before and unfortunately he’d never really taken the time to study or understand them. It’s why Thor’s attempts at Loki’s magic were shells of the true potential that Loki truly had when he was within his own skin.

 

But for the moment, Thor’s arm had been captured by an older Frost Giant, his red eyes digging holes into Loki’s retinas, as the armor around his brother’s arm disintegrated into nothingness.

 

Instead of the pain that Thor was immediately expecting--his brother’s skin turned blue as he twisted his appendage back and forth in shock and fear, his green eyes widening in surprise.

 

The Frost Giant glared up at him. Thor returned his gaze after a fraction of a second and he was uniquely afraid of the repercussions if this beast were to live to tell this tale. Therefore, Thor immediately spun the dagger he held in his other hand into his assailant’s chest, barely even watching him fall back as he stared worriedly at his changing arm.

 

Thor watched his otherwise pale skin transform into blue, his veins large from his thin frame, and he stared up at the world as though something kept back at bay had just clicked into place. It was in that small, small moment that everything just made sense. Why Loki had always felt different, why there were such large discrepancies between his brother and himself. Why Loki was always getting sick whereas Thor could batter a storm and remain fully intact health-wise. He didn’t have time to figure out what this meant, for his Loki, for himself, for father and mother. He had to keep fighting. Even as he felt his world crumbling around him, Loki’s emotions swirling from deceit and mischievousness to an intense anxiety and dread about where he fit--or didn’t fit--into the worlds around him, he had to keep fighting.

 

It was when he was busy trying to flick through the many emotions that were erupting within his soul that he missed being of aid to Fandral, who was now crying out as ice penetrated his chest walls.

 

Thor threw a dagger in haste to the creature that had just harmed his friend and found he was shouting back to his brother, “We must go!”

 

Loki paid barely any attention, the immense amounts of power surging through him as he knocked out giant after giant.

 

Thor scrambled after his friends as they began to retreat, the largest monster of the Frost Giants clambering towards them.

 

It happened mostly in a blur, because one moment they were nearly about to be consumed as food and the next Loki had flown through the creature’s open mouth, instantly killing it, as it landed roughly upon the ice, before falling off the edge of yet another cliff.

 

The terrain of Jotunheim was cold and dark, bleak and hopeless, but as the rest of the Frost Giants gathered around them, and as one of his friends was shouting for the Gatekeeper to open the Bifrost to save the very skin off their backs, suddenly father was there and they were being bathed in rainbow light as Loki turned Thor shouted, raising his hammer in joy and bloodshed, “Father! We’ll finish them together!”

 

Odin instantly whispered back, “Silence!”

 

The elder sibling’s face fell even while the trickster behind those blue eyes grinned in malice and resentment. His plans hadn’t fallen together so perfectly in years. He could really, really get used to being Thor.

 

Behind him, Thor felt aghast and riddled with a secret that he couldn’t begin to know how to comprehend, let alone fill his brother in on with the hopes that they’d be able to finally switch back.

 

Why would Loki ever wish to return to his true form if that form wasn’t even Asgardian to begin with? How would he truly take to the news? Because if Thor’s insight into Loki’s mind, heart and body were any indication, he was going to lash out with hatred and resentment so large that he’d be willing to do anything in his power to make Thor’s life a living hell. Let alone the rest of Asgard.

 

Thor gulped--no, this was news he couldn’t confirm just yet. It was, it was too soon for ultimatums. Maybe father would have the answer first. Yes, he had to talk to father.

 

But now wasn’t the time. Because father was instead negotiating to a failing degree with Laufey and soon, they were beamed up back into the golden chambers of his safe space, his home--or so he had always dreamed it to be back when he was himself--of Asgard.

 

Was this no longer Loki’s home, too? Was this news that Loki was different than them, that he was separate from them, was this news that would break his spirit to such a degree that moving forwards he would choose to lie in bloodshed and hatred so deep that it would ruin the depth of the brotherly love he once held, in some manner, to Thor? How much would this revelation change the course of Loki’s history… of his life? Thor knew not, but he saw the veil of darkness that shrouded his brother’s vision, and he was afraid. Deeply and uncomfortably afraid, and he knew not how to tell anyone. He knew not if he had it even within his brother’s frame to tell anyone--of what was occurring, what was happening, what was waiting to be unleashed and that once it was, once it had destroyed the tethers of his mind, how then would they all be able to pick up the pieces?

 

He was so stricken by his emotions and questions that he practically missed the entire conversation that was occurring before him. He took in three deep breaths, hoping to ease the rattle in which his breath was coming forcefully in and out. He tried to make it look like he was okay--because he was, right? Right?--tried to make it look like he truly was Loki, but the Loki he thought he once knew was turning farther and farther away from him, turning into a monster that he couldn’t help but feel bad for, and of which such reactions he knew deep down would be spit upon and mistreated, misunderstood and vilified against even if they were honestly how Thor felt. He wished more than anything that he could get Loki to see how much Thor loved him, unconditionally, but the world around him warped when he just barely overheard himself saying how he wanted the Jotuns to fear him--not knowing, not even breathing the idea that a Jotun could be so close to him and that he loved one nonetheless.

 

If only Loki knew the truth: the truth that he was wanted and loved and needed. How could Thor tell him this? Tell him this when he was just uncovering the fact that he was not one of them? Not truly?

 

But they were still family. And Thor wished more than anything that that mere fact would matter more than the betrayal. But he knew Loki, he knew Loki now more than ever before because he could see into his mind, see into his thoughts, his emotions, his fears. And he knew that this betrayal was the end of their relationship, as far as he could see it, if they even had had a relationship to start with before. This betrayal would color and sour Loki’s perspective and it would end something that Thor had always assumed was innocent and something he could always rely on.

 

Maybe that was the worst part.

 

Thor had lost Loki just when he thought he was finding him again.  

 

If nothing else, Loki wouldn’t want his pity. He would tell him to shove it back up his ass where his politeness had come from and scoff at him until Thor backed down. But Thor recognized then that he wasn’t Loki. He wasn’t Loki at all and he had been lying to himself all these years thinking he knew someone that he had never met, never truly met, not even once.

 

Segments of the conversation between his father and his brother caught onto the spider web of awareness that was Loki’s ears and eyes.

 

“You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy!” Odin was shouting at him.

 

Loki retaliated easily, “And you are an old man and a fool!”

 

Thor’s heart dropped several feet. They didn’t understand each other. They weren’t seeing each other for the valued family member they both were. They weren’t seeing the love they held for each other, the care, the trust.

 

Oh, how Loki had trusted father.

 

And mother.

 

And sometimes Thor.

 

But he had been betrayed. He had been betrayed so deeply and irrevocably that the pain that engulfed his eyes then was somehow so much worse than the pain that had been wrought upon his soul when he realized he had awoken that day as his brother instead of himself.

 

Thor wished there was more he could do. To help, to teach, to lessen the blows.

 

He tried to speak up, he tried to do something more, but father shunned him back into silence and he just had to watch helplessly as everything that he had ever prized in his life was being slowly and deliberately ripped away from him.

 

“Thor…Odinson. You have betrayed the express command of your King. Through your arrogance and stupidity you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war.” Odin raised Gungnir easily before placing it into the center of Yggdrasil’s powerhouse. The white and pale blue branches of energy expanded over the ceiling as the Allfather menacingly stepped towards his firstborn who truly held his second.

 

Thor swallowed thickly, his mouth an expanse of a desert without his saliva as his eyes swelled with worry and pain, feeling disheartened with the information that more than one betrayal had occurred within minutes of each other, but one having been centuries in the making.

 

“You are unworthy of these realms!” He swore loudly, taking apart Thor’s armor piece by piece.

 

Loki, behind a face of hurt, anger and surprise (with bridled glee) watched as he was stripped to nothing, eyes aglow with how much pride soared through him, everything was going according to plan. It was too bad he wouldn’t be upon these realms for much longer to see all the good work that he’d placed into this role. He almost laughed, but he kept it to himself just in time.

 

“You are unworthy of your title!” Odin continued.

 

 _Yes, yes I am,_ Loki thought to himself, letting the red cape come undone from beneath the metal of his shoulders.

 

“You are unworthy!” Odin said, deeply looking into Loki’s eyes. Loki shifted his gaze, a pang of guilt rimming them  as he knew the weight of these words as he had always felt them when he was his true self. In a hushed tone, Odin added, “Of the loved ones you have betrayed.”  

 

The Allfather looked particularly lost and deeply saddened by this most recent proclamation, as though it pained him to say it aloud, even more so than by merely thinking it. It pained him, truly, even further to look at his eldest, so he stopped doing so.

 

He stood back to Gungnir, replying beneath his breath, “I now take from you your power.” He clasped Mjolnir tightly as it came to him. “In the name of my father,” he powered the hammer to disintegrate one arm of Thor’s armor, “And his father before,” next changing the other. “I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!”

 

Thor gasped in shock as he watched his body being thrust backwards into the rays of the portal, to land alone on some planet without his power, without his strength, without… **him**.

 

Thor froze and stopped moving, he practically stopped breathing.

 

What--what were they going to do?

 

How could he make things right?

 

Or would…would they be stuck like this forever?

 

Only time held those answers; only time would be the one to tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:   
> Heyyyyy!!! 
> 
> Long time no see! Sorry about the long wait. I was stuck with trying to figure out how the logistics of this story would work and the last time I really wrote any fanfic stuff was back in August 2019. :P
> 
> However, I have figured out the plot holes (by mostly ignoring them, to be honest) and have jump started this fanfic to go forwards!
> 
> In August I was away in Germany and that helped massively for me to begin the story again and it was while I was there that the Muse decided this story would match parts of the Thor movie (instead of being a stand-alone, pre-Thor fic) and then veer off into an AU. This change wasn’t something I was anticipating but I hope to make it a solid part of this story going forwards. 
> 
> I also want to create a love interest in this story with Loki in Thor’s body which will be interesting. I am still on the fence on if it should be Darcy or an OC, so any thoughts on the matter would definitely be helpful!! 
> 
> This story is definitely transforming into something larger than I had anticipated so I hope that you enjoy where it goes and that you can leave me a little review on what you think of it or what you think I should cover in the future! 
> 
> Hope to see you guys soon in another fic update: S, ALU and D&D are in the works, although I will try and work for CtP and CeC as well. I’d say there’ll be something in the next 2 months. :] I did get a job but it’s just per diem and instead of writing fanfic lately I’ve been blogging a little and editing videos for my Youtube channel. BUT it was so nice to write again so I will definitely be doing more of it soon. :D 
> 
> Also, after having to follow the scenes of the Thor movie for this story, I have more respect for those of you writers out there that follow the Canon of the MCU by including direct quotes. It’s a lot of work!! You’re awesome!! 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading.  
> Stay safe!! xxx 
> 
> Music used in the writing/editing process:   
> She’d Say by Andy Grammer, Kamikaze by WALK THE MOON, Please Don’t Go by Abbey Glover, Hans Zimmer 
> 
> Written: 8.10, 8.11, 10.18, 10.19, 10.20.2019  
> Typed/Edited: 9.2, 10.18, 10.20.2019
> 
> PS The starting Italics is from the song this fic was inspired by. Every so often the chapter's will start with a lyric or two so as to seal the frame of that individual chapter and for the rest of the story as a whole. :] I do not own these lyrics, characters or worlds. I just like to borrow them and have some fun now and then. :D

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: 
> 
> Heyyyyy everyone!!
> 
> So, uh, welcome officially to this new fanfic yet old idea! Just like when I go to the library and have to take out some fluffy romance novels along with my murder mystery novels, I needed something light to clear up all the spider webs and emotional intensities of my other fanfics. :] So, this finally got made!! 
> 
> The idea originally is NOT mine, I got inspired by “gabygal7”’s Youtube video about our favorite brothers with Track & Field’s cover of “Running Up that Hill” (of which, of course, the title is inspired by). I stumbled upon her video back in 2017 and have been lying in wait until I could properly write the thing for that duration of time since. I tried back in January this year to write it but it only got as far as opening and saving a blank Word document, ahaha. 
> 
> But, June was the time, so here it is--officially unveiled and everything! It’s basically a Thor and Loki fic meets “Freaky Friday” (2003). I’m thinking that this will be short, only about 10 chapters, and this fic DOES come with its own cover art (done by myself in crayons, hehe) and will in future chapters include little bits and pieces of lyrics to start off and shape what that chapter will be about. It also took me months to understand all the intricacies of how they’d switch bodies and what would follow them (i.e. their souls) as I’m going by the conception that their brains are with their bodies as a whole so that what they think and feel normally is conditional to which body they are in--so Loki’s soul in Thor’s body will witness what Thor would normally think and feel while Loki still retains the capability of having his own thoughts, feelings and judgments about the world around him and within himself. It’s almost like Loki’s awareness and soul are with him even when he’s in someone else’s body. He is an observer of the way Thor responds and how he has to be mindful of how he acts, and yeah, you get it, I imagine. Hopefully I can find a way to explain that better within the story itself--or show it, even! 
> 
> But, I should go before I write another novel in this section, ahaha. Hope you’re doing well and thanks for reading!! If you would be so kind as to leave me a review, that would be swell. xxx 
> 
> My Internet is misbehaving but I hope to get this out before the end of the weekend. I may have officially gotten a new job so we’ll see how much I can write after that transition happens. Hope to see you guys in another update soon!! 
> 
> Written: 6.9, 6.14, 6.15.19  
> Edited: 6.15, 6.16 (I had to come up with user friendly page breaks :P)


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